This invention relates generally to reels for lines such as cable or line, and more particularly concerns reel configurations for controlling winding and unwinding of such lines.
When line is to be wound on a reel or drum, it is desired that the reeling or unreeling action be smooth, and that there be no binding of the line for maximum reel capacity. In small reels, the best examples of the problems and the solutions are to be found in fishing reels, where ingenuity has developed a variety of level-wind devices.
In another type of small reel, characterized as the spring-operated self-retracting reel, space and cost limitations have precluded the use of level-wind mechanisms. Attempts to build such reels have been plagued with problems of binding and unevenness as the line was dispensed and retrieved.
Consider, for example, the two possible extremes of line space: one, a wide, shallow drum on which line may be wound in random fashion; the other a narrow slit as wide as the line diameter, in which line may be wound in a stacked spiral. The former produces uneven action and binding unless the line is guided by a level-wind. The latter has extremely limited capacity. Somewhere between these two extremes lies a better reeling action, but the alternatives are limited.
For example to avoid binding when a line is unwinding from a reel, it must have been wound onto the reel in such a manner that (a) one wrap cannot get beneath a previous wrap, and (b) a wrap cannot wedge between two surfaces that provide a self-locking friction angle between them.
There is need for a simple reel configuration that will achieve a desired smooth dispensing and retrieval of line from a reel, such as a spring operated self-retracting reel.